2013 Pontiac Heaven - Speedworld Dragstrip

Editor’s note: Due to scheduling conflicts, High Performance Pontiac was unable to attend this event, so we asked the show’s promoter Steve Barcak to give us a first-person account of the activities.

Since 1998, many fans of real Pontiac power have attended the annual Pontiac Heaven event held at Speedworld Dragstrip outside of Phoenix, Arizona. From the show’s inception through 2002, different times of the year had been tried, including late April, October, and January, but starting in 2002, Pontiac Heaven settled in early April or late March, depending on when Easter was held that year.

Weather in Phoenix in early April is wonderful -- it’s a good time to be outside.

Everything stayed to its schedule for over a decade … until 2013.

2/13A yellow ’70 Firebird Formula 400 leads off this row of event show cars. It may look familiar—it was our cover car back in the Feb. ’08 issue.

Late in 2012, I learned Speedworld was in danger of closing. I was still able to book my normal early April 2013 dates for Pontiac Heaven weekend, so I proceeded with planning and promotions, but resolved myself that this may be the event’s last fling at our home track.

I made the arrangements, sent out the advertisements, printed thousands of color flyers, and made the other preparations to run the three-day event. Our special guests this year were to be Pontiac ad-man Jim Wangers, Pontiac engine builder and racer Jeff Kauffman, and early ’60s Super Duty-era Pontiac racer Stan Antlocer. Everything was going well and on schedule -- then Speedworld shut down in January. Can you imagine planning your annual event, putting all the work into it, and suddenly there is no place to host it?

I scrambled for other locations. The Phoenix area had a back-up dragstrip, but it was not available due to changing management. Suddenly, there were no dragstrips in the area for the first time in over 50 years. I had to make the decision—should I cancel, relocate and reschedule, or what?

2013 Pontiac Heaven Drag Racing Winners

Class

Name

Vehicle

ELECTRONICS

Winner

Dennis MacDonald

’69 Firebird

R/U

Jim Taylor

’64 Tempest

NON-ELECTRONICS

Winner

John Yorba

’67 GTO

R/U

Mick Batson

’67 GTO

TROPHY

Winner

Cole Preston

’67 GTO

R/U

Hubbe Olofsson

’67 Firebird

Ultimately, I split the event and had the car show and parts exchange in May and the drag racing in June. I selected The Courtyard by Marriott at Chandler Fashion Park in Chandler, Arizona, for the show and swap meet, and set the date for May 4. Marriott officials were accommodating and the location turned out very good.

The changing of the schedule and location proved not so good for my guest speakers. There was also a scheduling conflict for a conference room, so I was forced to cancel the seminars for this event. I’m hoping to reschedule these choice guests for a future event.

On the plus side, the show and swap meet went well, but attendance was down from last year. This is to be expected with all the location and scheduling changes forced on the event.

9/13Mark Avakian’s Best of Show ’66 GTO is not new to HPP readers, having been a feature car.

2013 Pontiac Heaven Show Winners

Class

Name

Vehicle

Best of Show

Mark Avakian

’66 GTO

Best ’64-’65 GTO

William Clark

’65 GTO

Best ’66-’67 GTO

Matt Diminico

’67 GTO

Best ’68-’69 GTO

Jerry Bryant

’69 GTO

Best ’70-’74 GTO

Steve Schneider

’72 GTO

Best ’67-’69 Firebird

Tim Blattner

’69 Firebird

Best ’70-’73 Firebird

Dave Peterson

’70 Formula

Best ’74-’78 Firebird

Aaron Wade

’78 T/A

Best ’79-’81 Firebird

Jean Pierre Brietta

’79 TA

Favorite Firebird

Don Zell

’68 Firebird

Favorite Trans Am

Greg Dalgarn

’70 Firebird

Favorite GTO

Larry Hinkle

’66 GTO

Favorite Full Size

Jason Gapen

’64 Bonneville

Favorite Lemans/Tempest

Steve Groce

’69 Lemans

Favorite Grand Prix

Stuart Schindler

’69 Grand Prix

Favorite Pontiac

Mark Gacy

‘64

Favorite Project

Jack Johnson

’55 Safari

Best Engine

Mark Leischer

’63 Catalina

Special Interest

Dwayne Neitzel

1918 Oakland

Best Interior

Frank Gostyla

’68 Firebird

Best Paint

Tom Rubunate

’65 GTO

Best Restored

Rick Johnson

’65 GTO

Best Modified

Glenn Gibbons

’64 Lemans

Most Original

Keith Collier

’61 Tempest

Best Engine (at Barona)

Bill Takanabe

Dragster

Best GTO (at Barona)

Les Iden

’66 GTO

Best Pontiac (at Barona)

Bill Baugh

’67 GP conv.

With the show/swap portion of Pontiac Heaven over, it was time to focus on the drag-racing program. I hooked up with Don Jullian, who owns a ’65 GTO and is part owner of Barona Drag Strip near San Diego. With him, I was able to make a deal to rent Barona and run Pontiac Heaven’s races there -- approximately 400 miles from Phoenix -- on June 14 and 15.

Race director Pete Brennan and I ran three brackets—electric, non-electric, and trophy -- plus timed runs -- and then a gambler race later each evening. The weather at Barona turned out ideal, with temperatures in the 60s to 80s.

As for the future of Pontiac Heaven events, I just don’t know at this time. The refurbished Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park (formerly Firebird International Raceway) is scheduled to reopen by early 2014, but the pricing is far beyond my ability. I am exploring all options to continue this 15-year run of drags, shows, vendors, guests, cruise-ins, and ... well, you get the idea. It’s truly Pontiac Heaven.

10/13Although there were many, many more fine Pontiacs at the event, there’s only enough space left for one more shout out, and this one goes to the original-owner ’70 Formula 400, bought new by Dave Peterson, which won Best Firebird ’70-’74.